Sweeteners

Those with a sweet tooth live dangerously; they love sugar, but too much ruins your teeth and figure. To sweeten, we use the most energy rich cane and beet sugars, sucrose. Yet, some prefer low-calorie plant sweeteners as alternatives.

Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum) provides 70% of sugars to the world market. Already in colonial times, Europeans cleared entire Caribbean islands to grow sugar cane. Because the work on the plantations was hard and grueling, they took and kept slaves from Africa who were forced to work there.  Sugar remains cheap, just as the working conditions on plantations are often catastrophic to this day.

People in Paraguay have sweetened their beverages with leaves from Stevia rebaudiana for centuries. Its sweetness is much stronger than sugar. In China and Japan, stevia was a popular sweetener long before its emergence on the European market. Here, products with the isolated stevioside were only first available a few years ago.

Have you ever grated licorice? This is the only way to obtain the coveted flavor from the roots of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). It delivers the raw material for licorice extract, anti-cough teas and other medicinal remedies.